Experts question whether the chief deputy at the Orleans Parish Sheriff’s Office should be working for organizers of the biggest events in southeast Louisiana.

Advertisement

The topic is familiar to New Orleans officers and the general public in the Crescent City.

At the annual New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival at the Fair Grounds, few acts of violence are reported each year. Security is provided by off-duty officers.

Both New Orleans police officers and Orleans Parish sheriff's deputies work paid details.

Their checks are cut by Jazz Fest and its parent company, Festival Productions.

Cmdr. Bernadine Kelly with the New Orleans Police Department and Col. Roy Austin with the Sheriff's Office are the point people for that work. However, the I-Team learned that another high-ranking sheriff’s official is also involved in the Jazz Fest security operations.

The Sheriff's Office confirmed to the I-team that Chief Deputy Jerry Ursin also works for Festival Productions.

New department policy strictly forbids all deputy chiefs and the chief deputy from working or coordinating any off-duty paid details.

It’s OPSO rule 301.16 -- off duty detail policies and procedures. It states that “all full-time chiefs are prohibited from working off-duty paid details."

Jazz Fest is widely considered to be the city's most lucrative off-duty work.

The I-Team asked the Sheriff's Office if Ursin is in violation of this policy.

Sheriff’s Office spokesman Marc Ehrhardt told the I-Team that Ursin isn’t working a detail and that he’s “a contract employee for Festival Productions. As public safety and operations liaison, he makes recommendations to festival productions on logistics and overall planning for public safety of attendees, entertainers and vendors."

Ehrhardt said that even though it's off-duty work, Ursin's role shouldn't be characterized as such and he is not involved with those working the security details.

The Sheriff's Office said Ursin is just serving as a public safety "liaison." It is, some experts say, a very fine point of distinction.

“I mean, if your wife thinks you are having an affair, you don't hang out in bars until 3 in the morning, it's the perception of wrongdoing -- maybe no wrongdoing -- but right now everyone is looking at the Sheriff's Office,” said Tulane Criminologist Peter Scharf.

A federal judge is also sorting through the department's finances, trying to determine how money is spent and who will pay for costly reforms at the jail.

“There is an accusation widely held that these guys are de-focused so the last thing you want to do is have your chief deputy involved in another enterprise when it's clear to anyone that your main business is not functioning in an acceptable manner,” Scharf said.

Southern University-New Orleans criminologist John Penny said even if the Sheriff's Office determines Ursin's work is permissible, others may not draw the same conclusion.

“I think there will be questions in the minds of the public,” he said.

The Sheriff's Office said Ursin's work as a public safety liaison doesn't stop at the Fair Grounds.

Festival Productions also puts on Bayou Country Superfest in Louisiana State University's Tiger Stadium.

The Sheriff’s Office said Ursin again is serving as a public safety liaison for that event despite Baton Rouge police, the East Baton Rouge Sheriff's Office and LSU campus police all telling the I-Team that their officers work security for that music event as paid details.

The matter has caught the attention of the New Orleans inspector general, whose office recently completed a scathing audit into the jail.

Ed Quatrevaux told the I-Team that "the Sheriff's Office should monitor and look at its detail policy as seriously as the NOPD did."

In the last two years, after a series of I-Team reports, the NOPD pledged sweeping changes to the detail system -- though some of the initiative has still not been implemented.

Scharf said in light of the current turmoil, Sheriff Marlin Gusman may want to take a closer look at the situation.

“Right now, they have to be super-careful,” Scharf said.

The Sheriff's Office did not make either Gusman or Ursin available for interviews.

The I-Team asked Festival Productions how much Ursin is paid. Representatives told the I-Team that they do not release that type of information.